The City manager’s office have provided a stock response to citizen concerns. Here is the latest example of citizen emails to the City, their responses, and our response to their responses. Please read through to our response, that’s where stuff gets interesting! In a nut shell, the City is saying, “trust us”, but their rhetoric doesn’t add up, and falls short of the potential of the Fort Collins community.
Dear City leaders,
I'm writing in support of the Solar Farmer's Market concept. I believe that it is a good idea, and that we should be investing in the future by raising the goals for solar and for VPP, and by finding ways to share the sustainable wealth that we can generate in this community. Please do your best to aggressively pursue this goal as I believe that it is in the interests of our community and our earth.
Regards,
(name withheld to protect the innocent)
City "Leaders" Response
Thank you for your email to City Leaders. Your email has been received by each member of City Council and City staff leadership.
City Council and City Manager Kelly DiMartino appreciate you sharing your thoughts. Due to the high volume of emails received by City Council, you may not receive an additional response, but if Councilmembers have personal thoughts or additional requests based on your email, you may hear from them directly.
Our Climate Future (OCF) has several energy focused goals to advance toward our emissions reduction goal and 100% renewable electricity goal. One of those goals, recently referenced during a community campaign, is to provide 5% community electricity from “local” distributed energy resources (DERs) by 2030, primarily driven by installation of new, residential and commercial owned solar arrays on the distribution system. This differs from “utility scale” solutions, which, in the simplest terms, is clean electricity delivered through transmission resources to Fort Collins substations by Platte River Power Authority (PRPA).
The local goal was developed as part of a larger strategy for reducing emissions from electricity use, including by driving more energy efficiency and encouraging electrification. At the time the goals were developed, Fort Collins local DERs accounted for approximately 1.5% of community electricity, and therefore the goal represented an increase of 233%. At the end of 2024, local distributed generation accounted for approximately 3.42%, and on track for achievement of the 2030 goal.
The establishment of the 5% goals was informed by an analysis of local solar rooftop potential (availability of physical space), economics – including available and/or uncertainty of tax credits and incentives, and local resources available to drive solar, including Utility incentives and available workforce. Staff have confidence the existing and forecasted Utilities budget has the right levels of incentives and infrastructure to achieve the existing goal. An expansion of the goal would likely require additional resources that we do not believe are the best use of funds at this time.
Unlike other cities referenced in the campaign, City of Fort Collins has a municipal owned, not-for-profit generation and transmission authority in PRPA to help with utility scale solutions, which are often more cost effective than local solar solutions. The recent PRPA Integrated Resource Plan, identifies that distributed generation is likely to reduce base energy needs by 6% by 2030. This alignment ensures future utility scale deployments are “right sized” for our community electricity needs. For reference, the Black Hollow Solar Project, which broke ground on July 10, 2024 and will be fully operational in 2026, brings in 257 MW of new solar, or approximately 6x the capacity of distributed solar in Fort Collins.
Along with both local and utility scale generation solutions, Utilities and PRPA are building and optimizing the systems and equipment necessary to operate a virtual power plant (VPP). The VPP, among other uses, will help manage the community load and help optimize use of intermittent clean energy resources. For example, during times of the day with high renewable resource availability (and likely associated lower cost) the VPP will call on electric vehicles to charge, hot water heaters to heat, batteries to charge, etc.
PRPA also has planned increases in new renewable generation starting in 2025 and each year to 2030. When considering the renewables included in our distribution grid and the mix provided from PRPA, our community’s annual electric usage comes from approximately 50% non-carbon resources (wind, solar and hydro). By the end of the decade, the City and PRPA expect that number to be closer to 90%.
At this time, staff recommendation is to maintain the existing OCF local distributed generation goal while continuing to work with PRPA to optimize non-carbon resources deployment as well as the deployment of a regional VPP.
Thanks again for writing. We appreciate you taking the time to do so.
Our Response the City’s Response
Hi (CforSE member),
Thanks for writing to the City. And for reading our response! It's about 1,100 words.
It appears the City won't be doing much of anything before the election this November, which underscores the importance of this election, and getting fresh faces on city council. We can elect three, or possibly four, new people (out of seven on council). This is an important opportunity to return progress and leadership to Fort Collins.
You probably received the above response from the City Manager's office, and noticed that, while there is a lot of spin, they don't answer your questions. I've combed through their email to distill some important points about the City's approach. There's a lot to unpack here, if you can stick with it, you'll see their correspondence says as much about City governance as energy policy.
Their missive starts by telling you that council members will get back to you, when and if they feel like it. Previous council members would at least offer the courtesy of signing their name to the stock response and sending it from their own email account. Councilwoman Emily Francis is running for Mayor, but not responding to constituents. Councilwoman Tricia Canonico is also running for Mayor and sending a response without actually reading your emails. Unlike past councilmembers, current councilmembers do not seem to think constituent correspondence is important.
The author (unidentified) then goes on a rambling paragraph to tell you that the local solar goal is 5%. What they don't tell you is that the first goal was 2% by 2030. When it became apparent (2018) that goal would be surpassed in 2020, Councilman Horak asked if it could be raised. The response was basically a shrug, and "how about 5%?" Now we are on track to pass 5% in 2027. No wonder they have confidence they can achieve that goal.
A Fort Collins Utilities staff member told me directly that FCU only considered a superficial evaluation of local solar potential that did not include all the parameters mentioned in their response. That person told me specifically that economic factors were not considered. Denver, Boulder, Holy Cross Energy (Glenwood Springs to Vail), United Power (DIA to Mead) and the National Renewable Energy Lab ran their own analyses and came to very different conclusions, higher goals, and already higher results. Here's a great podcast on the topic of local energy potential: https://www.volts.wtf/p/envisioning-a-more-democratic-bottom?utm_source=publication-search
I have to laugh when our mystery author mentions "best use of funds". Believe it or not, council does not consider cost/benefit or return on investment when budgeting climate funds. If they did, they would have to address what the City Manager said in 2022, that rooftop solar on City buildings has a 10% annual return on investment for the City. I challenge City staff to find a better use of our climate tax dollars! Instead, they are spending City climate designated funds on things like replacing gas utility carts with electric carts. That might be a worthwhile use for vehicle funds, but it is an insanely expensive way to reduce climate pollution when compared to solar, and is definitively not the "best use of funds".
Next the author turns to PRPA. She/he/they (?) claims PRPA is "often more cost effective than local solar." Fort Collins forecasts 6% annual rate increases under PRPA's plan. That means electric bills are increasing at twice the rate of inflation, over 75% in ten years! Rooftop solar is already cheaper than current electric rates, and projected to stay level or continue decreasing in cost over five years (despite Trump efforts). When they say utility scale solar is cheaper, they mean it is cheaper for PRPA. PRPA buys solar for ~3 cents/kWh. Fort Collins residents pay ~14 cents/kWh for PRPA solar. Rooftop solar is in the range of ~8-10 cents/kWh. We can generate power cheaper than they sell it to us.
City “leaders” want us to buy power from PRPA, not generate and share it amongst ourselves. This agenda is demonstrated in the same paragraph where they state that distributed generation will decrease needs by 6%, "aligning" with PRPA's deployments. They said the quiet part out loud! (Well, not out loud, more like they shouted into a box of obfuscation that is their response to you, hoping that you will get bored or confused, and give up.) They are purposefully limiting local generation's potential to 6% so as to "align" with their priorities. That is the truth of why their local solar and VPP goal is only 5%. They want us to buy electricity from them, not generate and share it amongst ourselves.
The next paragraph talks about VPP (Virtual Power Plant). That goal is also a woefully inadequate 5%. They mention that PRPA's version of VPP will "help manage the community load." They left out that their version doesn't include local solar generation or electric vehicle to grid (V2G) potential to put power on the grid. V2G is storing solar power in cars during the day, and using it on the grid at night. Every EV will be V2G in a few years, but Fort Collins is pretending this won't exist. Again, they want us to buy power from PRPA, not generate and share amongst ourselves.
The mystery author wraps up by stating that PRPA will get us "closer to 90%" renewables by 2030 and that we should just trust them. Your question of how Fort Collins plans to reach their goal of 100% is never answered because they have no intention of achieving their goal. City council members have called the 100% goal "aspirational" and said that because it was passed by a previous council, they have no obligation to support it. This is likely at the behest of PRPA. PRPA has been doing a lot of directing of City "leaders" lately. For example: taking over the Fort Collins DER/solar program, not allowing an audit of the plan to build more gas plants, and refusing state level review of resource planning.
The head of PRPA's public relations department is paid over $500k per year. PRPA's PR budget, while kept secret, is certainly over $1 million/yr. In the past, PRPA has directed the Mayor to let their PR team respond to concerns from citizens. Some folks believe the PR in PRPA stands for Public Relations Power Authority. You might ask, "Why does an entity with a monopoly and no customers other than the cities that own it have a PR budget and advertise on local radio?"
I wonder ... Could our mystery author be White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt? Well, CforSE is not the White House press corp. We will not ask softball questions. We will not accept BS answers. We will speak truth to power (pun intended)! We will continue to inform voters and hold our elected officials accountable to the high standards that Fort Collins deserves. Thank you for doing your part and advocating for sustainable energy policy supporting our local economy, environment, and community standard of living. Your voice and support are critical to the effort!
It's time for a change of leadership! If you, or someone you know is considering running for City office, now is a great time. There is a team and resources available to support candidates who share our values.
In response to constituents asking the City to maximize DER and Vehicle to Grid electric vehicles, Mayor Arndt wrote:
"Thank you for writing to me. I’ll copy the interim Director of utilities here who can get you a complete answer on our solar plan, our commitment to our climate future, and our DER strategy. I think you’ll find our plans to be of some of the most advanced in the country as we’ve been committed to clean energy future earlier than the most municipalities I know.
As Mayor of Fort Collins, I was selected to attend the COP 28 in Dubai last fall. One of 10 United States mayors. This is in recognition of our work date in the clean energy space, and our commitment to the future. In January I was elected to an international board for communities committed to clean energy. I only say this to point out that Fort Collins is on the forefront of these issues and we’re working hard to make sure we meet the future demands of climate change.
Thank you for caring about our community.
Kindly,
Jeni Arndt, Mayor of Fort Collins
970-413-3146"
My response:
At least she's acknowledged that citizens have concerns. She doesn't address them or commit to learning more about them, but she knows you exist. Weird grammar aside, she is correct that Fort Collins was early to the game in setting goals, and we got accolades and recognition for doing so. Unfortunately, when it comes to taking action, Fort Collins is at the back of the pack (https://coloradosun.com/2024/01/04/platte-river-power-authority-greenhouse-gas-reductions/). Jeni's message is "Don't worry. We got this." But they don't.
Jeni's flight to Dubai produced 5.6 tons of CO2. She came back with an application for a $50k grant for "youth engagement". I haven't been able to find any info on the grant or what "youth engagement" means, but I'd be surprised if this grant leads to 5.6 tons of CO2 reduction.
Despite being elected to an international board and claiming commitment, the Mayor can't address your concerns. Instead she passes your concerns to the interim utility director, who passes the buck to the energy services manager, who says the same thing as Jeni, but with more detail. There is one new addition to the renewable energy program this year. They added home batteries to the solar rebate program, which is great if you are in the market for home batteries, but doesn't have any meaningful impact on the plans to build more gas plants. Denver is taking real, meaningful action to reach their goal of 30% DER by 2030. Jeni doesn't seem to know that this is happening, but she's convinced that Fort Collins' goal of 5% makes us a leader.
Rather than throw our hands in the air and give up, CforSE is going to step up the communication. We are planning to attend as many Tuesday evening council meetings as possible to speak during public comment. Council has a much more difficult time ignoring us in public with the cameras on. 20 or so folks speaking on the same topic gets their attention!
Would you like to join us on a Tuesday evening (first and third Tuesday of the month) at City Hall? The time commitment is from 6:30 to about 8pm. You will have a maximum of 2 minutes to speak. Honesty, it's kinda fun. Nobody judges anyone's public speaking. There is a real atmosphere of camaraderie among us citizens in the audience. Let me know if you can make it, and we'll make plans.
Hopefully the leadership that you and other citizens are showing will inspire the Mayor to step up and lead Fort Collins into a bright renewable energy future.
Here’s that response from FCU:
Thank you for your inquiry regarding our Community’s renewable electricity efforts. Fort Collins’ City Council adopted the Our Climate Future (OCF) plan in 2021, which is a community guide to help create a carbon neutral, zero waste, and 100% renewable electricity future, while also improving community equity and resilience (fcgov.com/climateaction). The plan includes multiple goals, with the following two directly related to renewable electricity:
• Provide 100% renewable electricity by 2030 with grid and local sources
• Provide 5% of community electricity from local distributed renewable sources by 2030
The OCF plan also identifies foundational strategies to advance the installation of renewables locally in Fort Collins. Included in these strategies, Fort Collins Utilities launched “solar boost” incentives in early 2024, enhancing existing programs with increased incentives for new local residential solar and battery storage systems (fcgov.com/solarrebates). This will support our continued progress toward the above 5% local renewable goal, with the Community already achieving 3.2% in 2023 (up from 2.6% in 2022 and 2.2% in 2021).
Platte River Power Authority (PRPA), our local generation and transmission provider for delivered electricity, also has planned increases in new renewable generation starting in 2025 and each year to 2030. When including the renewables included in our distribution grid and the mix provided from PRPA, our community’s annual electric usage comes from approximately 50% non-carbon resources (wind, solar and hydro). Utilities has a commitment to the ongoing adoption of efficient building equipment to reduce overall electricity consumption, and supports incentive programs and policies that enable all electric buildings in our future.
I am also happy to share that Utilities has regularly collaborated with CSU / Energy Institute for many years. Included in the collaboration is the recent development of a real time community solar model that will help conceptualize solar generation in our community, and how this energy may impact Platte River Power Authority in a future energy market ( link here: https://apps.fcgov.com/community-solar-generation/). Additionally, Utilities seeks to partner with CSU on a data analysis exercise related to increasing the opportunity for level 3 electric vehicle charging in Fort Collins.
Finally, I’d like to share the attached presentation of the steps being taken to deploy a comprehensive Virtual Power Plant here in Fort Collins. PRPA and Utilities are partnering to deploy the necessarily software to support community wide DERs, which is foundational for our future energy supply.
Thanks again for writing, and we’d be happy to answer any additional questions you may have.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Brian Tholl
(he/him/his)
Energy Services Sr. Manager
Fort Collins Utilities – Energy Services
Here Brian acknowledges that Fort Collins DER goal is only 5% by 2030. He doesn’t mention that Denver’s goal is 30% and that academic research suggests 45% of US electric demand could be met with rooftop solar. He mentions that progress has been made over the years on renewable energy, which is true and good, but doesn’t address the questions or requests of the constituents. If you’re in the market for home batteries, then FCU’s new battery rebate program might be good for you, but it doesn’t move the needle much on preventing new gas plants. The mentioned collaboration with CSU is a joke. The graph provides very little useful information and the links to potentially useful information don’t work. He doesn’t mention that FCU turned down CSU on collaborating to create a VPP, or that FCU blocked a developer from implementing vehicle to grid and VPP in their new neighborhood. The presentation that he attached demonstrates that the utility is concerned with managing VPP, not maximizing potential.
They are responding to citizen request with public relations and a dog and pony show. Fort Collins residents need and deserve better leadership from our local elected officials.